


Here's to Us

by StephIsInsanity



Series: Of History, Weddings, and the Future [1]
Category: Avengers (Marvel) - All Media Types, The Avengers (2012)
Genre: Character Death Fix, F/M, Fluffy, Involves a Wedding, Kind of Domestic, and Holidays, and also angsty
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2012-11-29
Updated: 2012-11-29
Packaged: 2017-11-19 19:30:49
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 7,704
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/576840
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/StephIsInsanity/pseuds/StephIsInsanity
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>"Here’s to us. Here’s to the team. To the makeshift family of sorts that came with a lot of baggage that they wouldn't trade for the world."</p>
            </blockquote>





	Here's to Us

**Author's Note:**

> So this happened.  
> & it may or may not be fully canon compliant; of this you should be aware.
> 
> Also originally this was going to be separate chapters but none of them were really long enough.  
> So instead i put the titles in the story to separate the sections instead.

Pepper’s Pissed. (but not really)

In the few moments before he flew into the rip in space Tony Stark did two things, first he made his team members promise that if he didn’t make it back from this that they would go to his tower and meet someone there, he didn’t specify who but he knew Widow would know. The second thing he did was leave a voicemail message for one Pepper Potts, not too long, short and sweet and a proposition for her provided he made it back…

Which he did.

The avengers were gathered on the main residential floor of Stark tower, which was one of the few top floors not too structurally unsound to be used when the elevator opened and man in dress blues exited followed by a furious looking redheaded woman whom no one aside from Natasha recognized. The two approached the group and Natasha nodded a hello in the direction of the man accompanied by a “Colonel Rhodes” he returned her nod along with “Agent Romanoff”. The other avengers looked at each other, Steve looked as though he was about to ask who these people were but decided against it.

“Anthony Edward Stark!” the woman called out in a tone that made everyone else feel happy that they weren’t the ones on the receiving end of it.

Tony, who had taken the time to change from his disheveled Black Sabbath t-shirt and jeans into a well worn AC/DC t-shirt that you could clearly see the reactor through and another pair of jeans, walked into the room. He flashed the woman a smile and held his arms open. The furious glint in her eyes faltered for a moment before resurfacing she stalked over to him and began hitting him repeatedly and berating him with comments about selfish behavior, how he needed stop thinking in the moment, never thought about how his actions effected other peoples lives, and not to mention how his death would have practically crippled the company’s holding in the stock market.

“I know, I know, I’m a self-centered ass; an incredibly wealthy and extremely attractive self-centered ass but more importantly” he paused, more for dramatic effect than anything else, “did you get my message?” 

“oh I got your message” she responded her face betraying nothing of her feelings, Tony decided he needed to stop letting her spend off time around Natasha the two women had become rather close since Natasha’s time as a fake PA a few years back. Well, as close of friends as the CEO of a multi-billion dollar corporation and a master assassin could be he supposed. 

“and you.” She turned on Natasha.

“no call, no text, no ‘oh by the way I’m back in the country and not dead somewhere’. NO. All I get is some news footage of you mister star-spangled boy scout over here” she pointed towards Steve who just held up his hands in mock surrender.

“and then I see this dumbass flying into a portal and news report of you closing it and I remember thinking if either of them get out of this alive I’ll kill them both.” she took a breath and noticed all of the looks she was receiving from the other people scattered around the room.

“aaaaaand you all probably think I’m crazy” she grinned sheepishly towards the rooms occupants before introducing herself as the CEO of Stark industries and more importantly the only reason Tony is a functioning human being.

Then she turned back to Tony and she rolled her eyes at him and let out and exasperated sigh walked forwards and leaned into him before saying “I really thought you were going to die this time and I just didn’t know what to do Tony.“ He leaned back from her and he kissed her. When they pulled apart she said something about a long day and going to take a nap, she kissed Tony again briefly before walking towards the elevator to see how bad the damage was to the master bedroom.

“Oh, one more thing before you go” he said, reaching into his pocket. 

When she turned around she saw that he was holding up a diamond engagement ring that wasn’t too big and was really very tasteful, nothing but the best from Tony Stark. She walked back over to him and he offered her the ring, sliding it onto her finger he kissed her again. She pulled away with a mischievous look in her eyes.

“and will that be all?” she asked in a tired voice

Tony’s smirk matched the glint in her eyes.

“That’ll be all Ms.Potts, thank you.

“oh no, Mr.Stark thank you.” 

xxxxxx

Avengers Assemble (for Dinner)

Aside from Bruce none of the avengers had planned on moving into Stark tower, at least that’s what they’ll say if you ask them.

Some had asked permission to move in (Rogers), others found it better to simply spend the nights in the air ducts of the top most floor (Barton), or show up to breakfast box of pop tarts in hand (Thor). Tony had been convinced that the one avenger who would not move in was the Black Widow. Though technically she still had her own room back in the Malibu mansion, which he knew she crashed in sometimes, only when no one was home, after a mission. So he didn’t know why she was reluctant to move in to the New York tower. 

After 3 weeks Tony had decided that she wasn’t going to join the rest of them, but even Tony Stark is proven wrong on occasion. A few weeks later Natasha arrived at the tower with a single suitcase of belongings (if you ask Tony he’ll claim its filled entirely with weapons) which she leaves on the floor she knows Tony designed specifically for her. She didn’t know upon arriving that she would have her own floor. JARVIS just dropped her off on this level which was designed mostly of reds, greys, black, and white, before informing her that dinner would be ready on the main floor in about 20 minutes.

Exactly 20 minutes later Natasha walked into the dining area she was momentarily surprised to see that everyone was gathered at the table passing food around and that there was in fact an extra place setting already set up for her. Whether it had always been set for her or JARVIS simply alerted them to her being in the building she didn’t know but joined the rest of her team at the table. She filled her plate with food as it was passed around and was content to watch the rest of them make small talk, no one questioned her just showing up out of the blue and she was grateful for that.

xxxxxxx

Hey, That’s Life (PTSD not Withstanding)

One night about 3 months later the team sans Tony arrived home, he hadn’t been allowed to go something about deadlines and running a multi-billion dollar corporation. They walked into the main room to find Tony sitting on the couch unmoving with a haunted look in his eyes. He didn’t have any remarks to greet them or even any project laying out on the table just a half-empty glass of water. That was when Pepper came into the room a worried look on her face at first but she hid the emotions when she saw them standing there. She nodded a hello towards them so they wouldn’t think she was ignoring them.

She walked over to Tony and bent down so they were eye-level with each other, she rested a hand on his knee and quietly suggested that he should get some sleep, an panicked look appeared in his eyes and she quickly reassured him that she was going to stay with him. She stood up and he followed suit, she grabbed the glass of water off the table, he grabbed onto her like a scared child who was lost in a department store. He was visibly shaking as he walked and Pepper kept repeating things like “you’re safe now” and “Tony breathe you’re in New York everything’s fine”

When they were out of earshot Steve wondered aloud what that was all about. Natasha answered simply that it was PTSD enduced flashbacks from Afghanistan and that Pepper had said he was getting a lot better and they almost never happened these days. She recalled the first time she’d witnessed him having one when she was Peppers PA, she‘d had no idea what to do about it. When she was done recalling the incident she looked up and was met with confused looks from the four men.

“you guys know about Afghanistan right?” 

She was met with three shaking heads and a question from Thor about what exactly an “Afghanistan” was. Natasha shook her head disbelievingly then realized that neither Barton or Banner had been in the country, Thor hadn’t been on the planet, and Steve had still been frozen in the ice. She herself only knew the full story because of her time undercover at Stark Industries.

“5 years ago Tony had been doing a weapons demonstration for the military when there was an attack, and an explosion, which is where the shrapnel currently lodged in his chest came from, and he was kidnapped and taken to a cave in Afghanistan where he remained for the better part of 3 months. The other man in the cave with him created a car battery powered electro-magnet which he placed in his chest to stop the shrapnel from reaching his heart.” she paused a moment assessing the reactions she was receiving so far before continuing “His captors wanted him to build missiles for them, he refused and as a result he was tortured in various ways for the duration of about 2 weeks before he finally agreed. They brought him various things he’d said he needed and, instead of the missiles he built himself the first mini arc reactor that kept him alive, and then he built the Mark 1 version of the Iron Man suit to escape his prison.” 

She looked around at them to see that they all seemed to be allowing this new information to go along with what they already knew about Tony. She took a breath and was about to speak again when Pepper spoke up from the doorway. Steve and Bruce both jumped slightly in surprise none of them even knowing she was there.

“When he first came back he just didn’t sleep, he immersed himself in working on modifying the suit, he barely spoke and he refused to tell me what had happened to him. On the fourth day of constant work he collapsed from exhaustion and when I got him awake I forced him to eat but he couldn’t sleep for more than an hour without nightmares. He would wake up in a cold sweat, shaking, he never wanted to talk about it. He got into the routine of 4 hour naps on the couch in the afternoon when I was here so if he woke up in a panic he wasn’t alone and he would work through the nights non-stop. He would never admit that’s why he developed that pattern, but I understood the best I could. At first he refused to tell me any of what happened and I threatened to quit as his PA and he began sort of explaining it to me over time and in small pieces until I knew everything that had happened. Now he only gets the flashbacks if something triggers them which is why JARVIS knows that we only watch the local news and never the world news if Tony’s around.” she shrugged “I need to get back in case he wakes up, I came out here to explain but Tasha seemed to have it handled.” 

The group nodded before looking at each other and silently agreeing that tonight was movie night since no one was going to be getting any sleep.

xxxxx

One Wedding (Extra Pepperony Please)

On August 14th, 2012 Tony Stark married Pepper Potts; or more accurately Anthony Edward Stark Married Virginia Potts. Though no one really mentioned that aside from Thor who asked “Is Tony not marrying Lady Pepper? Who is this Virginia?” Bruce patiently explained the concept of nicknames to the demi-god. 

Four months.

Four months since Loki planned on taking over the planet.

Four months since Tony swore to avenge the earth if Loki succeeded in his plans.

Four months since Pepper watched the CNN coverage of Tony flying into an inter-dimensional space portal convinced he would probably never make it back.

Four months since she agreed to marry him in the surrounding rubble of what was once the greatest accomplishment in clean energy and their baby, their project.

So much had changed in those four months.

It took quite a bit of adjusting on Tony and Pepper’s part; they were used to being alone in a huge tower, always working on something, be it together or separately. Very few interruptions from SHIELD (official consulting hours are between eight and five every other Thursdsay). But now they had a (broken) tower full of superhero’s, constant interruption’s, and minimal actual work getting done, but neither of the two could remember a time when they’d been quite as happy and content as they were these days.

Sure they were extremely dysfunctional, could never all agree on something to watch, and forget privacy (Pepper literally did not have enough fingers to count all the times someone had walked in on her and Tony in a compromising position). But for now she really couldn’t imagine it any other way.

Tony had entrusted Pepper with the job of picking out their wedding song.

She had searched through countless radio stations, websites, and the music playlist’s of all the residents of the tower. Then one day a few weeks ago she found it, the perfect song, or well as close to perfect as a song she didn’t write herself could be she supposed. She had been in one of the living rooms on the main floor doing paperwork and blatantly ignoring the show on the television (at least that’s what she’d tell you if you walked in) it was some show that had a massive fan base and followed the lives of high school kids that sang in competitions or something. Not that she watched it regularly or anything she just always had paperwork to do, on Tuesday nights, at 8pm, every week, (and she most certainly did not have a favorite character who’s name started with the letter Q). But regardless of her TV viewing habits when one of the lead characters took the stage and began to sing, Pepper stopped her ruse of doing paperwork and paid full attention to the lyrics.

She then proceeded to look up the original version of the song to find that it had more than a few curse words, which would serve to make Tony more willingly agree to a song with no heavy metal style anything. 

It wasn’t really what you’d normally hear for a wedding song, but then they weren’t normal people. It wasn’t the easiest to dance to but they made it work.

We could just go home right now,   
Or maybe we could stick around  
For just one more drink, oh yeah  
Get another bottle out  
Lets shoot the shit  
Sit back down  
For just one more drink, oh yeah..

Tony smiled at Pepper while he spun her around on the dance floor not even trying to keep time with the music, when she’d first played him the song he didn’t like it, but the more he’d listened to it he got what she meant when she’d said it fit them pretty well.

 

Here's to us  
Here's to love  
All the times  
That we fucked up  
Here's to you  
Fill the glass  
Cause the last few days  
Have kicked my ass  
So lets give ‘em hell  
Wish everybody well  
Here's to us  
Here's to us

He also knew that the chorus was more or less directed at him, because Pepper wasn’t one for fuck ups, she was perfect at least that’s how he saw her. In fact that’s how she’d gotten her job as his PA fixing one of his fuck ups in the paperwork. 

We stuck it out this far together  
Put our dreams through the shredder  
Let’s toast cause things got better

Pepper honestly had completely different dreams of what her life was going to be like when she moved out to California almost 13 years ago. But she would gladly give all of them up again and again to have the life she had right now.

and everything could change like that  
And all these years go by so fast  
But nothing lasts forever

This part of the song had hit Tony hardest because he knew when Pepper heard it she had thought about all of his near death experiences over the years, and the fact that every time he went out with the team there was the possibility someone might not come back. Phil was a tragic example of exactly that. 

Here's to us  
Here's to love  
All the times  
That we messed up  
Here's to you  
Fill the glass  
Cause the last few nights  
Have gone to fast  
If they give you hell  
Tell ‘em go fuck themselves  
Here's to us  
Here's to us

Pepper smiled back at Tony, that mega-watt smile that was for him and no one else.

Here's to all that we kissed  
And to all that we missed  
To the biggest mistakes  
That we just wouldn’t trade  
To us breaking out  
Without us breaking down  
To whatever's come our way

This part right here was Peppers favorite part of the entire song because it was basically their entire relationship in a nutshell and she loved it. Sure they had made mistakes along the way, but they’d successfully turned Stark Industries from a weapon manufacturing company into the only name in clean energy right now and they’d done it gracefully. 

Here's to us  
Here's to love  
All the times  
That we fucked up  
Here's to you  
Fill the glass  
Cause the last few days  
Have kicked my ass  
So let's give ‘em hell  
Wish everybody well

Here’s to us. Here’s to the team. To the makeshift family of sorts that came with a lot of baggage that they wouldn’t trade for the world.

Here's to us  
Here's to love  
All the times  
That we messed up  
Here's to you  
Fill the glass  
Cause the last few nights  
Have gone too fast  
If they give you hell  
Tell ‘em go fuck themselves  
Here's to us  
Here's to us

Here's to us

Everything was perfect just the way it was.

xxxxxxx

Coulson Lives, Fury Lies. (or why Jane Foster Shouldn’t be Entrusted with Government Secrets)

 

Jane Foster was an incredible astrophysicist; she had a mind that could rival Tony Stark. She however was often so wrapped up in whatever she was doing that her brain to mouth filter was non-existent which proved to be a bigger problem than anyone at S.H.I.E.L.D. had anticipated. Though in Jane’s defense one Darcy Lewis had totally told them when they recruited her that if they didn’t want the truth on something Jane wasn’t the scientist for them. 

“so let me get this straight you want me to leave S.H.I.E.L.D. and come work for you?” 

“well no, actually I’m here for your boss”

Darcy rolled her eyes “look Mr. Stark, I’m gonna tell you the same thing I told Phil when he came looking for Jane, we’re a package deal. You want Jane you get me too.”

Jane poked her head out from the machine she was working in long enough to say “that reminds me, Darcy can you give Nick a call later and find out when Phil is going to be okay for visitors, Agent Hill said it wouldn’t be too much longer.” 

“yes ma’am” Darcy replied stepping over to her small office desk and jotting something down in small notebook there. It was when she looked up and noticed that Tony wasn’t talking or moving or doing… anything. 

“earth to Iron Man, you still in there?” Darcy waved her hand in front of his face.

He shook his head and turned on his heel.

“I’ll be expecting the both of you at the tower within the next week, there’s already a lab set up for your research and a floor for you both, though I expect Dr. Foster will be spending most of her time not working with Thor so essentially its all yours.” he called over his shoulder as he walked out the door. 

“We didn’t even agree to working for you!” Darcy yelled as the door closed. She sighed and shook her head, the responsibility of getting everything together was going to be hers as she was fairly certain that Jane hadn’t even been paying any attention to the fact that they were switching companies and locations.

New York City was going to be quite different from the deserts of New Mexico.

She plugged in her iPod and started packing up.

Meanwhile up on the S.H.I.E.L.D. Hellicarrier…

“ARE YOU FUCKING KIDDING ME WITH THIS FURY. COULSON IS ALIVE AND YOU JUST CONVIENTLY FAILED TO LET US KNOW?” Tony yelled as he landed on the deck of the carrier, faceplate of his armor raising.

“now I don’t know who told you about this classified information but yes Phil Coulson is alive. Loki’s scepter caused internal bleeding and punctured a lung but a full recovery is expected.” Fury responded with an even tone.

“THAT IS ALL WELL AND GOOD DIRECTOR BUT CAN WE GO BACK TO THE PART WHERE YOU FAILED TO FUCKING TELL US THIS.”

“we didn’t believe it to be of concern to the Avengers-”

“didn’t believe it was a concern to the avengers? Well what qualifies as a concern to you then? The fact that Captain America needed to ride across the country and back on his motorcycle to clear his head of that day? Or how about how Clint has taken so many out of country missions in the last few months with little concern of his well being? Is that of concern director?” 

Tony was beyond upset, he closed the faceplate on his armor and flew and flew until he reached the tower. As soon as his suit was off he had JARVIS round up everyone else and met them in the kitchen on the main floor. 

He told them all of what he learned when he went to round up Jane and his confrontation with Fury; when he finished Clint was the first to stalk off Natasha hot on his heels to make sure he didn’t do anything reckless. Steve left next grabbing his bike jacket and heading down to Tony’s underground garage. Bruce went back to the lab and Thor followed him they were having a quiet discussion about S.H.I.E.L.D. and its secret keeping. Pepper was just smiling she knew that she should be more upset about having been lied to for over a year, but when you were married to Iron Man and co-owner of a multi-billion dollar corporation (after the wedding they had decided that they would both hold control over the company not just Pepper) there weren’t too many real friends you could have. She was just glad to find out he was alive.

xxxxxxx

A Day at the Beach (or Clint and Tasha tell a story, and not of the bedtime variety)

In the months following Coulson’s recovery and return to active duty as the avengers handler, a job he now shared with Maria Hill, Tony had decided that he no longer felt like staying in New York. He had mentioned this to Pepper and she had suggested maybe they should spend a little time back home in Malibu. After all they hadn’t actually stepped foot into the main branch of Stark Industries instead running the company from its New York location out of convenience.

It wasn’t as though they were cutting themselves off from the other avengers, in fact they still had just as much contact as before via JARVIS because anything someone in New York asked the AI to relay was almost instantly told to Tony or Pepper and vise versa.

About 6 weeks after heading back to California, Tony decided to invite everyone to the mansion for a beach party; and by beach party he meant his backyard, in a pool, surrounded by sand. So really it was almost a beach, just without the public and the trash. Hill and Coulson were relieved to discover that it wasn’t an actual beach they were going to. The trouble that group could cause would be a PR nightmare.

Of course Tony being Tony had included in the virtual invitations that he’d sent out that none of the ladies would be allowed in without a two piece bathing suit. Pepper had smacked him upside the head after she’d caught glimpse of his note on the invite. He shook it off figuring he’d probably get hit far worse by Natasha when she arrived.

To his surprise however he was not hit by anyone other than Darcy when everyone had arrived and in fact no one had brought a one piece. Though Maria’s idea of a two piece (only about 2 inches of skin showed from between the top and the bottom) was far different from Tony’s it was still a bikini and there was nothing he could do about it. 

Tasha had opted for an all black bikini with red strings tying it, and Tony was pretty sure the board shorts Steve and Clint had on were S.H.I.E.L.D. issue blue. Bruce went with classic board shorts that were a deep shade of purple and had some bright green strings tying them up. Someone had let Thor go shopping on his own again and he had apparently discovered speedo’s. Jane however opted for a simple pink bikini, and Darcy well her no one was really sure what colour her bathing suit was, but it was pretty damn bright. Pepper was wearing the all white bikini Tony had bought her and his own board shorts were white and black. Coulson however took the cake with his red, white, and blue American flag shorts, he really was the ultimate Captain America fanboy.

Tony was lounging around watching everyone interact, when he noticed for the first time that Clint and Natasha both has tattoo’s on the inside of their wrists. They looked almost identical from where he was sitting, he’d never noticed them before now which he thought was odd considering they definitely didn’t look new. It was then he realized that Clint was always ready to pick up his bow and fight and was always wearing the wrist protection piece. Natasha on the other hand always had either a bracelet, a watch, or long sleeves on. Which explains why he’d never noticed ink on either of the assassins wrists before. 

“hey Clintasha you guys get matching tattoo’s and forget to tell everyone else?” Tony said in his straight to the point way. 

The nickname got him a raised eyebrow from Natasha. “clintasha?” she asked

“yeah y’know Clint and Natasha put together ‘clintasha’ its like bradgelina or tomkat.” 

The explanation earned him an eye roll before Natasha got up and did a perfect dive into the pool.

“it’s either that or blackhawk!“ he yelled after her before turning to clint “so back to the wrist ink, what is it your initials or something?” Tony tried.

He grabbed Clint’s wrist to get a better look, it was three simple letters CFB the number 12 and an infinity sign wrapped around. He let go of Clint’s wrist and looked back towards Tasha who was swimming now doing methodical laps in the pool. 

Clint sighed.

“Yes Stark its my initials CFB, Clint Francis Barton, the twelve is the number of the group experiment I was forced into, and the infinity sign is for something else entirely.” 

Tony nodded, and Clint realized that everyone was listening to what he was saying. 

"I’m from a small town in Iowa known as Waverly.” he began, Tasha had stopped her laps and was leaning on the edge of the pool, body still in the water.

“When I was 10 my parents died in a car crash and my brother Barney and I were sent to an orphanage, six years later we ran away. We joined a traveling circus I became rather close to the Swordsman, who took me on as his assistant. Another member of the circus, a man by the name of Trick Shot, he helped the Swordsman train me with a bow and arrow and a two years later I was pretty good. But it turned out he was embezzling and when I found out they beat me and left me for dead on the side of the road.” 

he paused.

“but I found a carnival and I adopted the name Hawkeye, people referred to me as “the worlds greatest marksman” I was a hit. I ended up joining the Coney Island Circus at the age of 18, until I decided I wanted to become a superhero, so I left my old life behind and tried for something new. It didn’t go over too well and there was misunderstanding on my first outing, and I was accused of theft and believed to be a criminal. So I went on the run, I fled the country and I became a freelance spy and assassin, I took on jobs, and on my 21st birthday I was kidnapped and brought to a testing facility where they--” 

He stopped speaking when Natasha had vaulted out of the pool, Tony took this pause in the story to ask Natasha what her middle name was. 

“I mean N is for Natasha and R is for Romanoff so what’s-” he leaned over to see her wrist better “-the A stand for?” 

He was met with silence while Tasha looked over at Clint for a moment before saying 4 word that had everyone giving her incredulous looks.

“My name isn’t Natasha”

“What do you mean your name isn’t Natasha, I have hacked every S.H.I.E.L.D. database there is and they have no record of you having another name other than the Black Widow of course.” Tony said in one long breath.

“That is because when Howard Stark and Peggy Carter brought me into S.H.I.E.L.D. I told them my name was Natasha Romanoff, and they asked if I was sure, agreeing that it would be my only name on file.” 

Everyone looked around at each other then back at the woman sitting in front of them, she couldn’t be older than 30, and yet she was claiming that a man who was dead long before she was old enough to join S.H.I.E.L.D. and the woman they’d all heard about from Steve’s stories had brought her into the government organization. Even Coulson and Hill looked perplexed by the story they were hearing. 

“I was born Natalia Alianovna Romanova, on the 18th of April, 1937 in Stalingrad, Russia. Almost five years before Captain America went down in the ice. What I wanted more than anything was to be a ballerina, they told me that’s what I would be. When I was 8 years old my parents were killed in a vicious fire and I was taken and placed in the “black widow ops” program. Essentially I was brainwashed, and trained in combat and espionage in a facility referred to the Red Room until I was 18. I was biotechnologically and psycho-technologically enhanced, which means that I can live 3 life times before I grow old enough to die of natural causes, and I have an enhanced immune system. I was brainwashed and trained as a spy, martial artist, and sniper. I was sent out with false memories to ensure my loyalties to the KGB, which is something I figured out shortly after meeting this freelance spy during a few of my missions. We worked together on and off for a few years and we were good, though that’s not how my superiors saw it and I was brought back in, they thought kidnapping Clint and seeing if they could genetically fuck him up too was a good idea though.”

Natasha was looking at no one in particular as she spoke with an emotionless voice, her eyes glassed over.

“Little to my knowledge at the time, when Clint was kidnapped he had been recruited by S.H.I.E.L.D. already and had we met up before being kidnapped his mission was to kill me. The brainwashing didn’t stick this time and I’d managed to escape within a week that wasn’t fast enough for me to prevent anything happening to Clint though. He hadn’t been brainwashed yet but the biotech was already enhancing him I got him out before it reached its peak but he’s still like me, can live 3 life times, however the only other part of him that was enhanced was his vision. After we got out Clint managed to get the drop on me and restrain me, but instead of taking my life he convinced me to come to the US and join S.H.I.E.L.D. as trade. Which is when I met the founding members of S.H.I.E.L.D. Howard Stark and Peggy Carter and became an asset instead of an enemy.” 

The group sat in silence and several minutes went by before she spoke again.

“the 10 after my initials means that I was in 10th group of girls to be brought into the program, my group was the first to make it through the trials without losing more than 2 girls to sensory overload and eventually death. Clint was the only member of the 12th group, and the only male to ever endure the procedure. The infinity sign was something we got added when we got to the states, to represent the fact that we would be out living almost everyone we met, but we’d never be alone.” 

And with that she stood up and walked into the house heading for the room she’d been calling her own since her brief stay here in 2010. 

xxxxxxxxxx

A Very Merry Christma..ka? (Or Bruce and Natasha Have More in Common with Darcy then they Thought)

On December 1st the team woke to find that the tower had been extravagantly decorated for Christmas while they’d been asleep. This came as little surprise to the team as JARVIS had taken to decorating the tower to coincide with the holiday of the month; however this was all out, even for him. The main floor had an all around warm feel to it that no one could really complain about. 

The only thing that didn’t come decorated was the enormous tree set by the large windows near Tony’s landing area. When Bruce stumbled into the kitchen area in search of coffee that morning he caught the tail end of Pepper explaining why that was.

“JARVIS said the tree came undecorated at Steve’s request that everyone actually decorate the tree together as a team instead of it coming all ready to put gifts under.”   
Bruce took his coffee and made his way back to his floor unnoticed. 

For the first week everyone continually put off decorating the tree, though Jane and Darcy had gone by the local hallmark and picked up ornaments that represented each of the hero’s, they were a lot harder to obtain then either woman originally planned. The Avenger’s were the superhero’s everyone was talking about so they’d actually had to use their connections to get the manager to open the box in the back earlier than planned. The two women hung the six ornaments on the tree when no one else was home thus starting the decorating.

When everyone came up to the main floor for dinner that evening, which was something they tried to do as regularly as possible, (exceptions were often made for Clint and Natasha who were regularly out on missions in other countries). Steve arranged for everyone to be home the night of the 8th because he was tired of them putting off the tree decorating. 

Pepper was pulling the last of the decorations down from the attic when Clint and Bruce announced dinner was ready. When she came into the room Tony asked if she’d finished getting the decorations down, which earned him a look that implied he would be sleeping on the couch tonight.

“Yes, and thank you for all your help Tony.” she replied sarcastically. 

“oh, yeah no- I was” 

Pepper took in his disheveled state and the singed tips of his hair.

“what’d you blow up Tony? Do I need to call the insurance company?”

He shook his head.

“nah nothing big, that shouldn’t be necessary but I’ll keep you posted.”

Pepper had an unsure look on her face. The one that always appeared when Tony was doing something dangerous or just plain stupid (though the two had a habit of being synonymous with Tony). But instead of saying anything she just shook her head at him and offered up a small, lopsided grin followed by an eye roll. The two sat and joined everyone else in passing food around the table. 

Clint and Bruce had made pasta, (“a shape this time not spaghetti! That all you ever make!” Darcy had yelled as she was walking out the door that morning). Clint had made garlic bread, homemade with a garlic butter of his own recipe, while Bruce made a kick-ass tomato sauce to put over the pasta. He made two versions of it, one with meat and one without. The one with meat was more for Tony’s benefit than anything, he had a habit of eating only one meal per day and at Pepper’s request they tried to get as many food groups in that meal as possible.

“I AM VERY INTERESTED TO PARTAKE IN YOUR MIDGARDIAN CUSTOMS OF FEASTING AND OPENING GIFTS.”

Tony winced at the volume of Thor’s voice.

“Yeah, buddy that’s great but could we please use our inside voices right now?” 

“I apologize Anthony. Did you know that your image of the one called Santa Clause is based upon my father’s image? It is asgardian legend that Odin would bring gifts to all the children of my world at the end of each solar year.” 

Steve looked perplexed at this story.

“I thought the story of Santa Clause was based off of St.Nicholas?” 

“That’s the more common story, the one pretty much everyone knows. The one that Christmas movies always show us, but if you look further into it you’ll find that it actually ties back to Norse mythology.” Darcy answered

This earned her raised eyebrows from everyone in the room and a beaming smile from Thor.

“What? After Jane ran over Thor with our mobile lab I started reading up on Norse mythology.” she stated as though it were the most obvious explanation they’d ever heard.

“Not that I’m not thoroughly enjoying this conversation on mythology and Christmas but its about 15 minutes until sundown, I’m assuming someone brought the menorah?”   
Tony said as he got up to clear his plate.

Now it was his turn to receive surprised glances from the entire room.

“Aren’t you an atheist Stark?” 

“I am. That doesn’t mean I can’t be prepared to celebrate all of my team members traditions. There’s even a table set up over near the tree for whoever brings up their menorah.” Tony explained 

“I have mine” Bruce spoke up “but I haven’t made it to the store to pick up candles yet.”

Darcy grabbed her bag off of the counter pulling out a bag from her earlier trip to hallmark with Jane, she revealed a box of multicoloured candles. 

I picked these up earlier, but I can’t seem to find my menorah anywhere, it must be in one of the boxes still in storage.” she explained

Natasha went and grabbed her prayer book from the floor below while Bruce and Darcy found something to light the candles with and set the menorah on the table that Tony had mentioned earlier. They explained the process as they went through the lighting of the shammus candle, the reading of the 3 blessings, and the lighting of the candle furthest to the right. They explained that the candles are added to the menorah each night right to left as that is how you read Hebrew, but they are lit left to right because you pay honor to the newest thing first.

It was agreed that gift giving would be done all at once on Christmas eve. Pepper then opened the first box of decorations , it was filled with all sorts of coloured lights for the tree. Steve’s eyes lit up like a little kid in a candy shop, as Pepper instructed the proper way to string lights on a tree. Tony argued that he had a robot that could do this for them and he didn’t see why they had to do it by hand. No one paid any attention to his whining and watched Captain America string lights on a tree.

After the lights they moved on to the ornaments. In the boxes from the attic they had ornaments of every colour you could imagine. They were in ball shape, teardrop shape, some looked like snowflakes. There was a ton of things to put up on the tree and they were at it for quite a few hours. However when they finished something just didn’t feel right.

“The tree’s really pretty and everything, but it just doesn’t feel like its our tree y’know? Its like it’s a generic, impersonal tree you’d see on television.” Darcy said, when they’d finished.

It was then agreed upon that everyone should try and come up with something personal they could add to the tree. There wasn’t any specific time frame in which to do so just get it done by the 24th and hang it on the tree when you get a chance. 

The weeks leading up to Christmas went by pretty fast. On the remaining seven nights of Hanukkah the group would get together and light the candles and eat dinner together, it was amazing how less than a year ago none of the people gathered around the table would have expected any of the others to be in their lives. Now they couldn’t really imagine their lives without these people. Who would’ve thought that a bunch of broken people grouped together would make something that works? 

Everyone had come up with quirky personal things to hang on the tree. Clint had strung together popcorn from a bag he bought at a traveling carnival last week, Steve had done up a small 2”x3” drawing of the team and Darcy had gotten it laminated and hung on a string for him. Tony had made a string of lights that looked like tiny arc reactors, while Tasha had strung up some small black spider rings left over from Halloween and painted a red hourglass on each. Thor had taken a trip home to Asgard for a few days and returned to the tower with some traditional ornaments that had Asgardian script written on them. Bruce couldn’t think of anything to hang on the tree at first and then he decided that he would take the little metal pieces that came in his bags of loose tea to hold in all the little spices while it soaked, he hung a few of those individual things on the tree. 

Darcy decided not to design something to put on the tree but to design something to turn on the tree, she and Jane worked together and created an app for Darcy’s beloved iPod that would turn on the all of the tree lights with the swipe of her finger. Pepper had gone to visit her mother the week before the holiday’s since she was planning on staying home for Christmas this year, while she was there she found a box with old ornament and such up in the attic. While digging through the box she found some of those silly projects you make in school, like a reindeer ornament out of your hand and a snowman made out of foam sheets and google eyes. She brought those back with her to hang on the tree.

As everyone got together on Christmas eve for the party Tony was hosting (for all S.H.I.E.L.D. approved guests of course) they got many compliments on the tree and when it got darker and Darcy got to show off her app making skills, everyone was even more impressed. The party actually went off without a hitch and Tony only got a little drunk as opposed to his partying days of the past, which Natasha did not fail to bring up around her fellow team mates. The rest of the team had a laugh at Tony’s expense, but only the two of them knew that the party where he let Natasha try on part of his armor his behaviour was only half alcohol induced, the rest was palladium poisoning. 

The following morning the team gathered around the living room, scattered on couches and the floor and handed out gifts to each other. They were drinking warm homemade apple cider that Clint had known the recipe for, and they were throwing balls of crumpled wrapping paper at each other, some with better accuracy than others. One thing was for certain on this bright New York morning, this year was certainly ending a lot better than it had begun. 

/fin.


End file.
